74%

       The last few weeks I have been visiting churches around Oregon, and am now at 74%! As of right now, however, It looks like I do not have enough support yet to leave in January which was my original target departure time. 

      On Christmas I will leave Oregon and travel to Central California, to spend the holidays with family. Since my job here will have ended by then, there is really not much keeping me here, and I will head down to Southern California an try get the support still needed to go. 

The blessing of revisiting an old home

All around the world people stopped this last week to remember what they were thankful for. I was encouraged and amazed too as I gave thanks for the blessings in my life. On Sunday I visited Calvary church in Salem where I attended in fifth grade, drove by the house I lived in, and walked around the school I attended. Saturday I also discovered that the satellite imagery of the little village of Moanza deep in Congo had been updated on google earth. I lived at Moanza when I was 7 and have only been back once many years ago but have many memories.

My Friends and I at Moanza. We went to Kinongi forest to collect a special kind of shoot to eat.

As I saw things that brought memories back I thought about all that had happened between then and now. Primary, high school, college, the many times crossing the world, friends, adventures, and all the challenges I have faced since that time. So much has happened since those times, some I am proud of and some not so much. Here I am though, with many experiences from these places and all the places between that have shaped me and make me who I am now. 

God has been with me the whole time guiding and watching over me whether I was thinking about it or not. And that is a lot to be thankful for. God has been faithful, and brought me back to places I have been to show me his power and his will for me. It was fun to look at myself now and see what God had made me since I last stood in those places.

Proverbs 20:24 says “A man’s steps are directed by the LORD. How then can anyone understand his own way?” As I look at all that is happening in my life now, I don’t understand or realize what is happening all the time. I look ahead trying to plan and wonder what my life is going to be like over the next few years. I felt similar in 5^th grade, even though they were a whole different set of issues.   I am encouraged that God will be there directing my steps even though may not understand everything. Someday I will be able to look back on this time, and realize how faithful God has been, as I am doing now.

Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving and where able to see the blessings in your lives.

68%

Praise God, My little airplane is now at 68%! Quite a jump from last month. I am now past the 2/3eds mark, and on the final stretch.

Waiting on Gods timing

43%

I am at 43% of the amount I need raze to leave for the Central African Republic! I was excited to move the plane up 13% this month and a little farther out over the Atlantic. There is still a little more than half to go, but I have no doubt that God will provide it. I am still looking for people to partner with me, and support me through prayer, and one time or monthly gifts.

What some people are willing to do for honey

My experience with African bees has been extremely exciting and has kept me learning and excited about them for a long time. These bees are unlike any I have read or heard about before. They go against all the theories of beekeeping, and are an aggressive and inexplicable bunch. Books and long-time beekeepers say they should act one way, but these bees turn around and act another.
I have spent many hours with the bees in Congo, observing, and learned their habits. Between times of working these bees, I study, and research reasons for their actions in hopes that I can figure out how to get them to act like "normal bees". I am still baffled by habits, but have a few ideas that I think might help to train them a little better and calm them down.
Other places in Congo and surrounding countries raise bees just fine. In fact, the first place I saw an African raising bees was when I went with a Cameroonian man and saw him working a few of his 300 hives without any protection!
Where I will be in CAR is about 1/4 mile from Cameroon, and my hope is that the bees will not be as aggressive or stubborn as the ones I know from Congo. From some research I have done already it sounds like they are not as bad.
While surfing the web a few days ago, I ran across a picture on BBC.

The caption reads: A Bayaka tribesman climbs a 40m tree to reach the most sought after of jungle foods, honey

Would you climb a 40ft tree with nothing but a vine holding you to it, and no bee suit to get honey??? Think this this guy would like to learn about raising bees in a hive, and wearing a bee suit instead of just a pair of shorts?

Honey in the CAR

I have been given the go ahead to work with bees in the CAR.  It has the potential to be an exciting new way of ministering in this region.  Bee hive products have so many benefits that can increase the income and health of a poor household, with very little effort. The Fulani people in the area, traditionally have raised cattle, but are now unable to continue for a number of different reasons. Agriculture is catching on, but slowly.  I have been told that reaching out to them with another kind of animal might be a way to reach this people group that has historically been hard to reach.

30%!

I am at 30% of the way to my goal, and being able to purchase a ticket to go to the Central African Republic. I am required to raise all the money I will need to live off of for the next two years. This includes insurance, airplane tickets, visas, rent, food, and everything else I will need to get or pay for while in the CAR. The total amount I need to raise is $3,000 a month, for two years. This can either be in pledges, or money in the bank. Once I have 100% of that amount raised, I can book the flight, and go.

A life lesson from a lost knife

My last entry was about blessings, and how God has orchestrated things in my life over the past few months. I prayed a lot about these things and it is funny that I should be surprised when God answered them.

This last week I was doing an exercise where I had to write out my testimony. One of the things I wrote about was my early understandings that there was a God who answered prayers. I believed in God from a young age, and enjoyed hearing all the bible stories. My family prayed a decent amount when I was small, and encouraged me to pray as well. It made me feel good, and from time to time things happened that were answers to prayers. The first time I can remember feeling like I was “smacked on the side of the head” after realizing God did something for me because I asked was at the age of 7.

It is tradition in the Chapman house that all boys get a small Swiss army knife when they turn 7. Or at least my dad got one then, and chose to give me one on my 7^th birthday too.  I won’t go into detail about whittling sticks, cutting my fingers, or when/if I have a son I intend to do the same when he turns seven. The point is I was told I was finally big enough to own something as dangerous as a knife. Just like my dad had been given one when he was big enough, I too was big enough now. I loved this little red knife, and liked thinking of my dad when he was small like me. How did he go from being like me to being so big and cool. Now that I had this little knife, I was on my way to being just like him.

Anyway, one day the inevitable happened and I lost it. I had lost it before, but would find it fairly quickly. This time though, I had looked high and low and it was nowhere. To make things worse, I was being picked up in a few minutes by a missionary pilot to go spend a week with my grandparents at a different village. I was in a panic because I wanted to show my Grandparents, my dad’s parents, my little knife. I had looked everywhere, and there was nothing left to do but pray. I knelt down and prayed a quick prayer, nothing special, just “God please help me find my knife” and BOOM, the first thing I saw when I looked up from my little bow was my knife. It was sitting right on my dresser. I had looked there many times that morning and somehow missed it. It was in that instant that I realized that prayer worked.

Now I know this is a silly story, and not being able to show my grandparents a little knife is not that big a deal. But that was what was important to me at that time, and the way God chose to teach me a lesson. I have thought about this incident many times. Since then I have prayed and seen results in other things. Sometimes not immediately, or the results I wanted, but in the end things work out.

So how do I know it is God and not just some random happening? When I was 7, I did everything in my power to find that little knife, and I finally realized that nothing I could do would find it except pray. I believed God could help me find it.

Jesus says in Mark 11:23-24 “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

Simply put, believe God can do it and he will. Now we can’t just ask for whatever we want and God will give it, but we need to be in tune with God and patient sometimes to get what is best for us. Some times God wants some thing else, that we don't understand.

I believe in God and that he answers prayer. I have seen seeing things happen in my life and others that don’t make sense other than there was something out of this world that interceded.  Personally I find it kind of hard to believe that all of the things I have seen are pure chance. So in the end it all comes down to faith. Believing in God and understanding that he has the power to and will help us when we ask.

I have been doing a lot of praying recently and am anxious for answers, but also to see how God is going to answer them. Now I just have to wait for his answers.

Is there any thing you are at a loss over that you should pray about? 

How did I end up in Portland?

     I am constantly amazed at how God provides what I need when I need it. Today I found myself looking back on especially the last few months, and how he has once again provided so much in my life. The past two months I was not sure where I was going to live, and how I would get there once I decided. Step by step, and never before it was absolutely necessary that I knew, things would fall into place. 

     After Jesus shows his disciples the beautifully dressed flowers of the field and tells them that people are more precious to God than flowers, he goes on to say “³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:33-34

      I have been trying to use this time to learn more about seeking the kingdom, and trusting that he will provide for tomorrow, as he dose for the flowers, and the birds. Even though I work hard at trying to figure things out my self, sometimes I just have to depend on God open up new possibilities, and I have to have the wisdom to follow. 

                                         The audio is best with head phones. 

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Why not live in comfort?

For the second time now I have watched my parents, Glen and Rita, leave Santa Cruz returning to Congo. My bags were not with theirs, and although I could visualize the planes they would be on, the airports they would be in, and the place where they would be arriving, I would not be with them. The first time they left without me was when I was in college. They were returning to what I knew as home, while I stayed in the US to finish school. Five years later, here I am again, waving goodbye.

As their departure date has drawn near, I have watched their excitement, and anticipation for getting back to Congo. A year in the United States seeing friends, family, and living a western lifestyle has been good, but there is a different kind of life waiting for them back in Congo. Both my mom and dad have many responsibilities there, but also so many opportunities to help and encourage the national church, and the people of Congo. This is what gives them that burning desire and excitement to get back to Congo, to join friends and colleagues ministering there.

            As their departure date drew closer, and I myself am planning a trip overseas, this idea of going has been on my mind a lot. Adding to my thoughts, I have had multiple people in the last few weeks ask me “Why go to a place that is so difficult to work in, and with so few comforts? Why not stay here, where you can settle down and have a good life?" What makes us so excited and passionate about going back overseas? This question really requires a longer answer, but in short, I don’t think I could live here in good conscience, knowing that my God-given gifts and interests could mean the difference between physical or spiritual life or death. 

            God has given me a passion for central Africa. He gave me parents who showed me that they could and were making a difference in other people’s lives. Whether it be through helping nationals start a sawmill, or praying with someone, lives were being changed because of their willingness to be there. Even though life can be tough at times, someone has got to be there, and it is Christ who gives the passion and energy to keep going back.

            Paul says in Philippians 2:4 "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others."

            God is calling believers not to hold what they have for themselves and live a life of comfort, but to help others in their lives. Not to hold our skills, or hope we have in him to ourselves, but to share it. In my family’s case, it has been to the people of Congo who my parents have felt they could help. They are able to provide technical support, be godly members of the community, and encourage the national church.

            While there are many people here in the US that need God’s love and people to help them, the great commission (Matthew 28:19-20) calls us to our home towns, but also to the ends of the earth. Going halfway around the world is definitely not for everyone, and not everyone should or needs to go, but God has put it on certain people’s hearts. It does not make much sense from a worldly perspective, but the desires and nudging God gives people is powerful. Strong enough to cause people to do things that are sometimes different than what is expected. As a result, we go.  

            Watching my parents leave, and not being there in the excitement of returning for the start of a new term was frustrating. This goodbye was a little different from the last, though. I will be following them to Africa soon. Not the same place, not even the same country, but to where I can use my gifts, where I feel God is leading me, and that is exciting.  

            So what gets you excited? What talents and skills has God given you to share with others?